Sir, – Martin Wall's piece "Pay for student nurses to increase from beginning of March" (February 23rd) brings welcome news for student nurses and midwives but misses a critical disparity between these two groups of students.
While their nursing student colleagues receive a travel bursary for all of their practice placements in hospitals, midwifery students only receive this allowance for a total of eight weeks of external placements.
This is despite the fact that for the first three years of this four-year programme, midwifery students on unpaid placements “work” and engage in the provision of care for women and their babies.
These placements can include working nights and weekends, in which the unsocial hours lead to increased travel expenses for students.
The majority of midwifery students have to work in part-time paid employment in order to pay college fees, travel costs when on placements, accommodation and living expenses.
Hence many students are working lengthy hours per week, leading to some fatigue, exhaustion and ill-health, but more significantly, if this continues, there is the potential that the safety of mothers and babies, for whom they are providing care, will be compromised.
This is unsustainable and needs to be addressed. – Yours, etc,
CAROLINE KIERNAN,
Swords,
Co Dublin.